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The findings of this latest survey really indicate that the industry has still not seen the value of placing HPID in the HIPAA transactions.

RESTON, Va. (PRWEB)September 22, 2014

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), the nation’s leading nonprofit authority on the use of health IT to create efficiencies in healthcare information exchange, announced findings from its recent industry survey on the use of the unique Health Plan Identifier (HPID) within electronic transactions adopted under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). WEDI conducted the survey from August 20 to September 5, which included 262 respondents across multiple stakeholders, including health plans, self‐insured health plans, providers, third‐party administrators, clearinghouses and software vendors.

The full survey results can be viewed online and summarized through WEDI’s September 19 letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Some significant findings from the survey, include:

Only 15 percent of all stakeholder respondents find any value in the use of the HPID within transactions.

Only 24 percent of respondents have no concerns about implementing HPID concurrent with other mandates.

A greater degree of granularity will impact 51 percent of respondent implementations, while 39 percent are not able to even determine what the impact will be.

HPID use within transactions will be the same complexity or more complex than implementation of the National Provider Identifier (NPI) for 55 percent of respondents.

Only 30 percent of respondents, other than providers, indicated the cost to implement HPID would be less than $500,000, while 33 percent are not even able to determine a cost estimate at this time.

Only 19 percent of providers indicated the cost to implement would be less than $50,000, and another 56 percent are not able to determine a cost estimate at this time.

Only 11 percent of respondents reported privacy and security risks would be less than current risks under HIPAA.

“Since 2010, WEDI has been at the forefront of discussions with healthcare industry stakeholders on HPID and how it will impact their businesses and the overall healthcare environment,” said WEDI President and CEO Devin Jopp, Ed.D. “The findings of this latest survey really indicate that the industry has still not seen the value of placing HPID in the HIPAA transactions. This supports our recommendations to CMS from October 2013 that CMS require HPID enumeration but modify the rule to make HPIDs not used in transactions.”

About WEDI
The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) is the leading authority on the use of health IT to improve healthcare information exchange in order to enhance the quality of care, improve efficiency, and reduce costs of our nation’s healthcare system. WEDI was formed in 1991 by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and was designated in the 1996 HIPAA legislation as an advisor to HHS. WEDI’s membership includes a broad coalition of organizations, including: hospitals, providers, health plans, vendors, government agencies, consumers, not-for-profit organizations, and standards development organizations. To learn more, visit http://www.wedi.org and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.